People spend years chasing happiness, only to learn the hard way that it wasn’t where they thought it was. They assume career success, riches, retirement or the “perfect relationship” will bring the happiness they’ve always wanted. In the process, they miss the enjoyable moments all around them.

But what will make you happy? To find out, we turned to one of the best resources available today. Stanford University’s Center for Compassion and Altruism Research and Education has devoted considerable effort to studying “the positive qualities of the human mind.” In the process, the team at Stanford regularly releases studies that quantify happiness. Here are a few things Stanford researchers have learned over the past few years.

1. Be compassionate.

Stanford has a longstanding research interest in the connection between practicing compassion and achieving happiness. The medical school offers an eight-week course called Compassion Cultivation Training (CCT), that teaches attendees how to develop a more compassionate attitude. In a study to determine the program’s usefulness, they found that it led to an increase in both mindfulness and happiness. The training, the study authors said, emphasizes the benefits of connecting with fellow human beings to a person’s overall well-being.